DATE CHANGE: EVENT WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, NOV 12
David Harris
David Harris served as the Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from 1990 to 2022. His academic background includes roles as a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and as both a Junior and Senior Associate at Oxford University's St. Antony's College. Currently, he advises the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, continuing his work on global Jewish issues.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
1:00- 2:00pm
The New York City Bar Association
42 West 44th Street
New York City
Also available on Zoom
About the topic:
As the crisis in the Mideast deepens and widens, this talk will address who are the real power brokers in Israel? How did Israel get on its current trajectory sandwiched between Hamas and Hezbollah and threatened by Iran itself? What are the possible outcomes of the current war? Is peace possible? Is a two-state solution possible? What ought to be the role of the U.S. in seeking to influence Israeli military and diplomatic decision-making, mindful that on January 20 there will be a new Administration in power? Do the recent efforts and successes at diplomacy, such as the Abraham Accords, have any influence in the current situation?
About the speaker:
David Harris, currently Executive Vice Chair of The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), was Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from 1990 to 2022. The AJC has been described by The New York Times as the “dean of American Jewish organizations,” and David Harris himself was called the “foreign minister of the Jewish people” by the late Israeli President Shimon Peres. Throughout his 50-year career in the nonprofit world, Harris has been deeply involved, both domestically and globally, in issues related to foreign policy, national security, interfaith and interethnic relations, social policy, higher education, and the Jewish community. Harris has been honored more than 20 times by foreign governments for his international work, which included helping lay the groundwork, over decades, for the history-making Abraham Accords in 2020, making him the most decorated American Jewish organizational leader in U.S. history. He is the author of Antisemitism: Everything You Need to Know, to be published by Oxford University Press in Summer 2025. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA from the London School of Economics. He has also been a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University.